Tag Archives: self-publish

Indie authors have to make a lot of decisions when it comes to marketing books. New tools come out frequently. Ron Glick, author of 12 books, weighs in on his experience using Amazon’s Kindle Countdown. Read on for some great insights. Also check out his latest novel, Dorothy Through the Looking Glass.

Being an independent or self-published author usually means you are literally responsible for every aspect of producing and marketing your book. Things that a writer can rely upon through a traditional publishing house – such as marketing, media contacts, professional reviewers, etc. – are not readily available to an independent, which means an independent must work considerably harder to market their work. The key to any successful independent author is marketing, and anyone who has been where I have been with self-promotion, you know there is no readily available network to plug into to get instant recognition of your work. In a nutshell, marketing is everything. Continue reading →

NARR8 is an innovative, new(ish) content platform and mobile app. Founded in 2011 by Alexandr Vashchenko, NARR8 was inspired by Vaschenko’s love of comic books and entertainment media.

“The name ‘NARR8’ came from the idea of combining story telling, or ‘narration,’ with the number 8, which, aside from being an auspiciously lucky number in certain parts of the world, also resembles the Mobius strip—the symbol of infinity,” Alexis Valerio, Senior PR Manager for NARR8, said. “We wanted to emphasize the idea that NARR8 would offer both infinite breadth in the form of a variety of content genres, and infinite depth in the form of episode after episode of great stories.” Continue reading →

“The time for merely replicating print books has run its course. E-books are now ready to become their own unique medium and take advantage of all the possibilities digital technologies have to offer.”

Authors work hard to write and polish their books, but no matter how great the content, if the e-book is poorly formatted then readers will be frustrated. Avoid disappointing your readers and make your e-book look professionally published. Using free tools, you can: Continue reading →

I like to experiment, and recently I decided to try turning my blog into an e-book. Or more specifically, uploading my blog to Kindle as a subscription service.

There are many ways to turn a blog into an e-book, and in the future I may play around with some of them. But for now, the Kindle version was simple enough that I could set it up in a few minutes, and for the next few weeks I’ll be monitoring it to see if it’s worthwhile. Continue reading →

Originally published on HuffingtonPost and IndieReader. Read the full article here.

With few exceptions, major news publications do not review indie books, even though more than 235,000 titles were self-published as of 2011.

This lack of coverage in traditional media outlets, however, has not stopped indies from their rise. To the contrary, according to a recent New York Times article, “Self-published titles made up roughly one-quarter of the top-selling books on Amazon last year.”

In May 2013 alone, according to Digital Book World, at least ten self-published books were best sellers, including The Bet by Rachel Van Dyken, Twisted Perfectionby Abbi Glines, Real by Katy Evans and Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1–5) by Hugh Howey. Even after an indie title has reached bestselling status—and sometimes the imprimatur from a traditional publisher—reviews from a bonafide news outlet can be few and far between.

To fill the gap left by traditional critics, book blogs have become reliable resources for thousands of people looking for up-and-coming indie titles. And nowadays, getting reviews from these online sources can be enough to propel these books onto the best seller lists of the very media outlets that shun them. [Read more…]

Brought together in India through a series of hare-brained adventures are Arthur, an old bohemian from Cologne; Albert, otherwise known as Bear, a snack bar owner who emigrated to Goa; Gerd, a German businessman with a mid-life crisis; and Sherie, a stunningly good-looking prostitute from Bombay. Together, they embark on a mission to find a mystic figure in the Himalayas: The Golden Biker, who supposedly cruises through the mountains on a golden motorbike, to punish the evildoers and give to those who mean well some of his not less mystical marihuana…known among aficionados as the best grass in the world. Continue reading →

Like this:

“When 81 year old neo-conservative Karl Patton dies, his four sons must gather up his bones and dredge the river of their own lives lived in the shadow of their father—the T-Rex.

‘The T-Rex father possessed an abnormally large mouth from which he would chew out loud, belch, curse, and devour any weaker form of life. He possessed a great sweeping tail that could strike with unusual dexterity, hitting anything, including his own children, for the slightest infraction…'”

Like this:

Self-publishing books, once considered almost taboo, or at the very least desperate, has evolved into something fun, easy, and even professional. Blurb is a perfect example of this.

Based in San Francisco, the company recently had a pop-up store in New York City. Located at 60 Mercer St. in Soho, the store was open from Oct. 21-31, and allowed customers to take part in workshops, speaker sessions, and events, as well as see examples of professional quality self-published books.

Inside was a writer’s dream come true. Hundreds of glossy, beautiful books lined the shelves and were stacked on tables.

Blown-up covers hung on the walls like artwork. And the people working in the story were incredibly helpful–they even gave me a coupon to print a free book!

For customers interested in using Blurb’s services, they had computers set-up so people could easily look up information, such as what software they would need, how to format, and how much it would cost to print.

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Welcome

I like experimenting with digital technologies in the publishing world. I also have an obsession with (e)books, dinosaurs, bad grammar, and amateur photography. And of course writing about everything. Find out more at sabrinaricci.com. Enjoy.

I like to travel, write, and make e-books. So far I have self-published two e-books, The 13th Cycle and How to Create Your First E-Book. Like many other authors, I have been writing stories for as long as I can remember. I still have the writing bug and intend to churn out more books soon, including a few children's stories and more e-books in the How to Create E-Books series--which is intended to help self-publishers take even more control over their work and hopefully save themselves some money. You can see my progress on new books at my author website here. Even though I publish digital books, you can read e-books on pretty much any tablet, phone, and laptop or computer. Some free programs include Adobe Digital Editions, Azardi, EPUBReader in Firefox, and Kindle Reading Apps.

Though I started off as a journalist at UC Santa Barbara, with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Professional Writing, I have since transitioned into book publishing and earned a M.S. in publishing from New York University and a creative writing certificate, emphasis non-fiction from the University of California, Los Angeles, Extension program. And I have worked and written for a variety of publications, including Scholastic's Storia, LIFE.com, Noozhawk, Santa Barbara Magazine, Yahoo! Voices, Demand Media, FarFaria, and Examiner.com. Additionally, I have worked for publishing houses such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, NBC Publishing, and The Experiment Publishing.

In 2012 I was the recipient of the Oscar Dystel Fellowship. I was also the co-founder and publisher of FictionBrigade, a micropublisher of flash fiction ebooks. FictionBrigade's ebook "Espresso Fiction" is an award-winning finalist in the 'E-book: General Fiction' category of The 2012 USA Best Book Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

Currently I freelance for IndieReader, and recently I've started teaching courses on Udemy and Skillshare about how to create e-books (basically expanding upon my series).

*Sabrina is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Sabrina is also a Smashwords affiliate and Apple affiliate.